TANDO ALLAH YAR: Holding the tri-coloured flag of the Pakistan People’s Party, sixty-something Zawwar Khan Vikio does not remember how old he is. But he vividly remembers how at a public meeting in the interior of Sindh an elderly, disgruntled man elbowed his way through the crowd onto the stage and asked former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto what he had done for the people of Sindh.

“As panic-stricken policemen scrambled to seize the shabbily dressed farmer, Bhutto sahib asked them to step aside and let the man speak. He asked the heckler to repeat his question. Unafraid, the man asked Bhutto sahib what he had done for the people of Sindh to deserve their support and votes. Waving his index finger at the questioner, Bhutto sahib said: ‘I have given you your voice. Now you can confront a prime minister at a jalsa and ask him what he has done for you.’”

The owner of the roadside tea stall in Tando Allah Yar where Vikio recalls the blunt encounter between a peasant and a prime minister, nods in agreement and says: “Saeen, PPP legislators who make it to the national assembly and the provincial assembly have done very little for us. And it is not that the Magsis, for whom this district was established in 2005 so that they can wield influence here unchallenged, have not done anything for the constituents. The thing is that our vote belongs to Bhutto. We do not vote for the Pittafis or the Bachanis. We vote for Bhutto.”

Established in April 2005, the Tando Allah Yar district was carved out of Hyderabad a couple of months before the 2005 local government election in a move (rightly) described by the opposition as an act of gerrymandering.

In the 2002 general elections, Shamshad Sattar Bachani of the PPP obtained over 50,500 votes to win NA-223 (then Hyderabad-VI). She was followed by Adeeba Gul Magsi who secured over 28,500 votes.

In the Jan 8, 2008 polls, Ms Bachani again faces Ms Magsi, who is a sister of Tando Allah Yar District Nazim Raheela Gul Magsi and former provincial revenue minister Dr Irfan Gul Magsi.

In the 2002 polls, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah Rizvi of the PPP obtained over 31,500 votes to win PS-51 (then Hyderabad IX). A PPP old-timer, Mr Rizvi was elected from NA-223 (which was then NA-171) when the seat was vacated by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto following her 1997 electoral triumph over Allah Buksh Magsi, father of the three Magsi siblings whose posters adorn the walls of even mud-brick huts in Tando Allah Yar.

Dr Magsi undermined PPP supremacy in PS-52 (then Hyderabad-X) by winning the seat as an independent candidate after securing over 18,900 votes.

He was followed by Imdad Ali Pittafi of the PPP who obtained over 16,300 votes.

The PPP now hopes Mr Rizvi to retake PS-51 and Mr Pittafi to make another attempt to win PS-52. They will face Mir Puppo and Dr Magsi on PS-51 and PS-52, respectively. Supported by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), the PPP rivals nevertheless call themselves an independent panel.

While PPP sympathisers - and there is no dearth of them in the Tando Allah Yar district - insist that the flinty feudal ways of the Magsis will cost them dearly in the forthcoming polls, District Coordination Officer Farooq Leghari maintains that huge development projects initiated and completed by Nazim Raheela Gul Magsi may tilt the balance in favour of her siblings.

“While I do not want to make any political comment, I feel certain that the development projects will make a lot of difference in the Jan 8 polls. Uplift funds to the tune of Rs2 billion have been poured into the district since its creation. These projects have been undertaken at such a magnificent scale that they cannot be ignored even by the most implacable detractors of the government.”

And PPP supporters idly sipping at their tea at an election office concede that some credulous voters may be swayed by what they describe as propaganda about development works. But they point out that more than any thing else it is the “reorganised assault” of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in at least one provincial assembly constituency that poses a great threat to their vote bank.

In October 2002, Mohammad Ashfaq Khan of the MQM obtained over 9,100 votes in PS-51, which comprises mostly urban areas. This time round Abdul Sattar Qaimkhani is the MQM candidate for PS-51. While an MQM win seems highly unlikely, the police department is bracing for a possible breakdown of law and order on polling day.

“PPP and MQM supporters clashed during the 2005 local government elections. All the 71 polling stations in Tando Allah Yar city areas have been declared ‘highly sensitive’ by the police department,” says a high-ranking government official requesting not to be named.

However, Tando Allah Yar District Police Officer Asif Shahzad Abro says that since electioneering has yet to gain momentum in his area of responsibility, the possibility of a violent clash looks remote.

“Our critics have been saying that the PPP has failed to mobilise its activists in an election campaign that currently looks lacklustre,” says PPP activist Abid Ali Nizamani who suffered injuries when twin bombings hit the homecoming procession of Ms Bhutto on Oct 18.

“Just let Benazir come here for a public meeting. She will give the PPP election campaign in Sindh the kind of fillip it desperately needs at the moment.”